…art is a mental toy.

—Todd Lowery, art professor

Many artists today use multiple outlets to create a fulfilling and sustainable career for themselves. Todd Lowery, a professor and chair of the Art and Art History Department at Drury University, reveals his own artistic journey.

Lowery takes a chameleon approach to his art, exhibiting a diverse group of portfolios. In each portfolio, he focuses on an idea and develops it. Lowery does not attach his artistic brand to just one style.

A Drury professor since 1994, he earned an outstanding teaching award in 2004. However, Lowery does not consider himself a teacher. He wishes to be a mentor and a guide in order to inspire students to create the art they desire to produce.

He shared some thoughts with The Scoop during a recent interview:

Q: When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

You know, I don’t know that I ever came to that awareness. It was just something I did and something I did a lot. I realized it was something I wanted to do. At the beginning of college, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I liked Spanish and thought maybe that was something I wanted to pursue. But then I was just like why would I do anything else when I wanted to do art? So no, there was never really a realization of me wanting to be an artist.

Q: Where did you go to undergraduate and graduate school?

For my undergraduate degree I went to Missouri State and was actually the first person in my family to get my degree. I chose to do graphic design, but I realized it wasn’t something I truly enjoyed and what I did enjoy was painting. I didn’t actually take a painting class ‘till my third year because I kept putting it off because I didn’t know how to paint. I finished with an emphasis in graphic design but all of my elective classes were fine arts classes. I applied to about four graduate schools and one I got into, which was my first choice, was the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The main goal of this school was geared toward working artists. It was very competitive. There were around 700 applicants for 28 spots.  I submitted a 20 piece portfolio and my entire portfolio was put together of stuff I had done outside of school. My original goal was to stay in New York and pursue my art there.

Q: How did you market yourself as an artist?

After I graduated undergrad, I rented a studio space downtown, with a few friends who wished to continue, in this abandoned somewhat renovated space. I worked for various offices doing graphic design in order to pay rent so I could put together a portfolio in order to get into graduate school. Melanie (a friend) and I would also exhibit our work in our studio, which was not something people did at that time. I think we did three or four exhibitions. I also applied to other exhibitions to get my work out there.

Q: Why did you go into the path of teaching?

After two years in New York, I was mentally fried and broke. A few of my friends and I wanted to share a studio to continue our work, maybe in Brooklyn or something. But I wanted to step out of this for a year. I wanted to go home and be with my family and just sort of get my footing back, financially and emotionally. I needed to save up enough money and after a year, go back.

During that year, I did freelance graphic design and after about nine months, I still didn’t have enough money to go back. Whenever I went to Heer’s Department Store, a friend of a friend kept telling to go talk to Tom Parker at Drury University, saying ‘you guys would really hit it off.’

Looking back, there were just these small things that just changed everything. But she just kept pestering me and finally I called him. He didn’t answer so I left him a message, and he called me back 15 minutes later asking what I was doing in Springfield and he asked me if I was interested in teaching. I was like, ‘Ehh. I mean, I don’t know.’ I wasn’t going to say no ’cause I wasn’t sure, and I kind of needed money. And so he hooked me up with a drawing and a foundations class. After teaching those classes, it turned out I really liked it.

Q: What do you try to instill in your students?

When talking about other people’s work, I was able to respond honestly and in a way that wasn’t imposing on them. Teaching was fulfilling in a way that only my art had been to me at that point. But I realized that this was so fulfilling, and I was making a difference.

One of my goals is to coach my students to be more prepared. One thing that I stand by with my own work is truth and honesty equals success. And one thing I was telling Sarah [a student] last year was that art is a mental toy. People are going to play with it and then get into it in their own way. And every person may see it a little differently because of their background, even though it’s all the same toy. You can have an emotional response to a toy, an intellectual response, or a sentimental response.

I use that example because it seems like such a simple idea but it digs so much deeper than that and it really unfolds nicely. People may ask, ”What is art?” And what it is, is a mental toy. It’s something you come back and play with and engage with. And I am really glad I had that conversation with that student because it has so many meanings, and that is something I always go back to when I am teaching.